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Why Did Rufus Never Hit Big Time?
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Great player. He was out for a long time with a career threatening injury and came back at White Hart Lane. I will never forget him flying in to tackles in that match, he was as brave and as quick as any centre half who has played in the Prem. Very often a centre back will make an error and get punished. Rufus made errors, but was quick enough to make it right. To me possibly the bet Charlton player in my time, on his day.0
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Baffles me why he never moved to a 'bigger' club, he was simply a phenomenal defender. Would have loved for him to have made the full England senior team purely because he bloody well deserved it. Glad we got to keep a total legend to ourselves though.0
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Rufus for England, Rufus for England!0
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Jayajosh said:
Q. Who was the best Rufus or Costa?
Don't forget Fish0 -
Remember Young Fish Costa Fortune.0
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Has anyone got the footage of that tackle he made on his return from injury at WHL that day? Immense - I can still feel it. Prob would have been off for that now but it was a great tackle, a mans tackle, no menace just 100% determination to win the ball.0
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He done two in quick succession. One being absolute top draw and think my tele in South London was shaking from it. Think they were both on Les Ferdinand. Not naturally (think thats Di Canio or Claus) but the best player I've ever seen play for Charlton.0
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away at Liverpool, best individual duel I ever watched, Heskey v Rufus, all over the pitch, all through the game until one of them eventually saw red, RR unfortunately. Made his taming of Shearer over the years look routine.0
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Definitely my fav player. I remember one rumour why he didn't get a big move was his quiet personality.0
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Never forgot those 2 tackles at WHL, did Les Ferdinand touch the ball again after those 2. Was in the ground and I believe it was the first tackle you heard it clearly in the away end. Fantastic, what a player.0
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Find it sad that he did not maximise his potential. Unfortunate injuries and stuff, but still, in another world he could have played week in week out for spurs or something and got England caps under his name.
Of course I would not have wanted him to leave us for spurs, but that would have given him his England chance which he deserved.0 -
He was unlucky that England had the CB positions covered comfortably around that time. On the other hand SCP got his call up due to a lack of left footed players, and the universal horror at having to play a right footed player, like Phil Neville, at LB. Plus an outsider manager (Sven) who was happy to try out players from smaller clubs. The likes of Konch and Young benefited from that policy change.0
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My arse!Off_it said:
If there were a single reason then this would be it, imho.shirty5 said:Distribution
Yes, injuries at the wrong times and "the Charlton factor" probably didn't help but in my mind - and trying to be objective - the real top defenders are more comfortable on the ball and have better distribution than our Richard did, and they need to be because they probably see a lot more of it in possession than our guys did at the time.
As an out and out defender I would still rather have him over most of his peers of the era and am absolutely honoured that I witnessed such a great player playing for us.
Lovely fella too, by all accounts.
Ever see Sol Campbell play?
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Did his dad work at Lewisham station?0
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Hastingsaddick Member
7:57AM
Did his dad work at Lewisham station?
That was Mr Leaburn Senior0 -
Maybe he was a loyal sort - we should love him all the more for that. I don't think you can compile a list of Charlton Legends with his name not on it.0
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He was loyal be we made a fuss signed his contracts at the right time never asked for too much
His distribution def held him back from a real big club0 -
I've been going to watch CAFC for over 50 years now and Richard Rufus is without doubt one of the best players I have ever seen in a Charlton shirt, great man as well.0
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Don't forget Coventry came in for Rufus when he was about 19, we turned them down (they were in the Premiership, we were in the then Division One).
As Curbs once said of him, "If you're looking for a defender, then he's a proper defender."0 -
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He never went to a bigger club as he would have made all the other defenders feel inadequate.0
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What's he Upto these days?0
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Insightfulcarly burn said:
My arse!Off_it said:
If there were a single reason then this would be it, imho.shirty5 said:Distribution
Yes, injuries at the wrong times and "the Charlton factor" probably didn't help but in my mind - and trying to be objective - the real top defenders are more comfortable on the ball and have better distribution than our Richard did, and they need to be because they probably see a lot more of it in possession than our guys did at the time.
As an out and out defender I would still rather have him over most of his peers of the era and am absolutely honoured that I witnessed such a great player playing for us.
Lovely fella too, by all accounts.
Ever see Sol Campbell play?0 -
Undoubtedly the best 'stooper' defender I have seen since Jack Charlton.0
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The amount of love and respect for RR is extraordinary.Makes you think his time at the club should be marked in some way. He seems to represent everything that is good about this club in many ways. Rufus was a God. Right up there with Hales and Mendonca.0
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He's number one on my list.0
